For "first time claims," the mainstream media was consistently happy with first time claims ~ 275,000 under President Obama. In hindsight, the previous number of 400,000 seemed incredibly high.

For "new jobs," 125,000 will be the new "base." The final number under the Obama administration, was 156,000. Even though 156,000 was described as "tepid" by The New York Times, it was associated with economic growth. Now, June 2, 2017, Steve Liesman (and others) suggest that 121,000 is a fine number.

With both these numbers, the Fed under Janet Yellen felt comfortable raising "rates" for the first time in quite some time.

After about the first two years of posting these updates, it had become
clear/obvious that the figures were often suspect, if not outright
falsified. On November 18, 2013, it was reported that, indeed, unemployment figures have been falsified.

In the home stretch of the 2012 presidential campaign, from August to
September, the unemployment rate fell sharply — raising eyebrows from
Wall Street to Washington.
The decline — from 8.1 percent in August to 7.8 percent in September —
might not have been all it seemed. The numbers, according to a reliable
source, were manipulated.
And the Census Bureau, which does the unemployment survey, knew it.

Take the numbers for what they are worth, I guess. Not much. Rick Santelli, CNBC, January 6, 2017, also suggested the numbers were suspect when the December jobs report, at 156,000, was incredibly bad, and yet unemployment number (4.7%) did not change.

July 6, 2017: first time in a long time, first time claims rose to 248,000; forecast for a dip to 243,000. Not a good report. News jobs report also "bad." Forecast for 185,000 jobs; actual, only 158,000.

June 8, 2017: numbers here. Down 10,000 to 245,000. Still not a very good number.

June 2, 2017: this might be the big story of the day, regarding jobs. Look at the "magic numbers." The number of jobs needed to maintain economic activity continues to come down according to pundits. Transitioning from the Obama to the Trump administration, the tea leaves suggested 150,000 new jobs each month was the "magic number." But many economists (see above) suggested 125,000 was the "magic number." Now, today, Steve Liesman over at CNBC (and many concur), 121,000 is just fine. So, it looks like the new number is truly 125,000. I have updated the "magic number" above.

March 30, 2017: last week's number revised upward to 261,000. This week's number, 258,000. That is a decrease of 3,000 but expectations were for a decrease of around 15,000 (which seems to be the new narrative under the Trump administration). The four-week moving average rose to 254,250, much higher than the previous report.

March 23, 2017: prior of 241,000 was revised to 243,000. Most recent numbers was 25,000, a horrendous increase of 15,000: this marks the first time above 250,000 in eight weeks. Four-week moving average is 240,000.

January 26, 2017: forecast way off; high end was an increase to 250,000; in fact surged well past that; up 22,000 to 259,000. CNBC talking head already getting ready to blame that dismal number on Trump. LOL. Four-week average at 245,500.